Development of Six-Axis Arduino Controlled Robotic Arm Fabricated Through Additive Manufacturing (AM) Technology

In the past decades due to Industrial 4.0 Revolution, as a type of Additive Manufacturing (AM), Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) has gained importance in generating prototypes for enhancing capabilities in design domains for manufacturing sector. Additive manufacturing has become versatile advanced manufacturing technology to produce intricate parts which finds wide applications in aerospace, automotive, medical and construction field. This work involved the design and fabrication of 6-axis Eclectic controlled Robotic Arm developed using additive manufacturing technology. On the other hand, in this today’s world of globalization, every manufacturer tries for attaining quality products to strengthen supply chain. It is not possible for all industrialist to invest for complete automate the process of manufacturing. Therefore, keeping above to objectives of manufacturing, author has focused to develop customized 3D printed Robotic Arm for the pick and place industrial applications. Apart from industrial applications, this developed robotic arm can be utilized for academic purpose among students’ community, as the cost of this robotic arm is economical. This 3D printed robot arm is controlled by Servo-drives and Arduino microcontroller. The main advantage of this robot has been its 6-axis of degrees of freedom which is controlled by Android app with Bluetooth technology interfacing. There are other features which can be enhanced by customizing the programming for other suitable industrial applications. The robotic arm is built by using materials such as ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) which is the common filament used in 3D printing. The author finds difficulty while fabricating the connecting link of the robot arm due to the curling or warping behavior of ABS material. This phenomenon happens mainly due to fast shrinkage and bad adhesion or poorly levelled build plate during printing of first layer. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.